Aladdin Sane & Diamond Dogs - 30th Anniversary Editions
-David Bowie-
DIAMOND DOGS & ALADDIN SANE I have a confession to make. Since I consider myself a pretty big Bowie fan, it’s a difficult one to make. I’ve always been dissatisfied with ALADDIN SANE and DIAMOND DOGS. Outside of their singles, I’ve probably listened to those albums the least (outside of his two bad 80’s material). But, I’ve got the 30th anniversary editions of both albums, so it’s time for some reflection: With ALADDIN SANE it’s easier to pinpoint why I didn’t like it, I find the album frustrating. All the songs are extremely well written. There are no bad songs on the album. I can listen to all of them. I just have a hard time listening to them all in a row. There is something that grates on my nerves after awhile. I think ALADDIN SANE is just plain too bloated. I get frustrated and a bit tired of listening to the album straight through because with a little bit more focus those songs could have been perfect crystalline pop songs on par with Ziggy. Unfortunately, Bowie was loosing perspective on not only his personal life, but on record as well. Almost all the songs on the album could be trimmed a little. Also the sound doesn’t vary as much as the first album. What I mean is the actual "Sound" because Bowie goes through a lot of different styles all over the album. I think the production needed a little more work, almost everything is a bit too sharp, at least to my ears. It needed a bit of variation in sound distance and the feel of the sound. In a mix or taken on their own, I can listen to every song, often multiple times. It’s just hard to get through the whole album. It’s harsh, sharp and well, smothered in cocaine probably, so what would you expect?
It’s still difficult for me to listen to the album straight through, the mix is a bit better, warmer in places, but it still sounds sharp. If you like the album, go and buy this edition RIGHT NOW! If you are cold on the album or even outright hate it, it’s still worth picking up for the extra material. There are six live tracks that provide good examples of Bowie changing his performance of older songs like "Life on Mars" to tailor the strengths of his current live show and to help them sit comfortably beside the newer tracks like "Drive in Saturday" There are the usual alternate mixes and singles mixes, all of which are interesting to contrast with the originals. The most important track on the extras, imo, is Bowie’s version of "All The Young Dudes". Difficult to find other places. I have a version of BOWIERARESTONE with this on it, and I think it’s been on other compilations, but this is a good way to pick it up if you don’t have it. If your going to buy ALADDIN SANE, buy the 30th anniversary edition. I won’t go into much track by track analysis, except to say that you may not find any better examples of glam rock in it’s heyday than this. ZIGGY STARDUST might have helped kick off the glam rock, but ALADDIN SANE, though a lesser album, is it’s glam rocks best example.
I Think what really turned me off is due to two equally silly reasons: A) I think I was too young when I listened to the album for the first time. I was immediately drawn into albums like ZIGGY STARDUST and SCARY MONSTERS, but I probably just wasn’t ready for Diamond Dogs. It sounded more dated and harder to penetrate than most of the other Bowie albums I had heard to that point. B) The 70’s brownish tinge. As superficial as this may be DIAMOND DOGS has one of the most unappealing Bowie covers of all time (outside of the two 80’s crap albums). It’s not really the drawing either. The half man half dog Bowie is awesome. I think the real weakness is that 70’s brownish tinge. That gawd awful color palette of wood panel brown and velvet suit purple. Silly, I know, but it did put a block up right away in my young mind. The cover looks just plain dated because of it. But of course I always loved "Rebel Rebel" and "Diamond Dogs". The former has one of the greatest guitar lines of all time and that latter has one of the best intros of all time. "This isn’t rock and roll, this is genocide!!!" "Diamond Dogs" is also one of the best written songs about rock stardom and corruption, and maybe also resurrection. The audience is screaming, the terrific guitar kicks in, then Bowie’s voice which sounds amplified and far away like it’s bouncing of the back of an arena and hitting you on the side of the head.
The brown is remedied a little form previous CD editions. It’s a little darker, but still seems tacky. Okay, onto the valid comments. Damn! How did I not listen to this when I was younger? This should have been right up my alley. I must have had brain damage. Really. This has everything I used to look for, and I guess still do. A huge amount of variance, dangerous and slightly deranged lyrics. Big epic sounds. Lots of stuff that is fun to sing along to. The improvement is variety is probably attributable to Tony Visconti returning on this album as Bowie’s co-producer. Really, I was a damn fool. It can only be confirmed by the fact that I could pinpoint right away what I didn’t like about ALADDIN SANE in total as an album, and my analysis is still the same. I never had a good reason not to like DIAMOND DOGS right off the bat. It’s 70’s apocalyptic science fiction filtered through rock and roll*. Yes it has some things on it that sound dated, but to me they sound dated in a good way. The way certain Phillip K. Dick books feel inseparably linked to the late 60’s and 70’s, the way Heinlein’s STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND will always feel out of step with the generations that came after it, but it still derives it’s power from the context of it’s time. It’s really no surprise that DIAMOND DOGS sprang from Bowie’s failed attempts to adapt Orwell’s 1984 as a stage musical. I’m not really sure if it hangs together as a concept anymore than ZIGGY STARDUST does. I need many more listens, but right off the bat it is definitely an emotional journey and the songs do follow an arc. Just not sure how explicit that arc is yet. The intro, "Future Legend" is evocative of 70’s sci-fi film, and pulpy Heavy Metal Magazine style stories. It’s both creepy and a little bit cheesy, it’s mostly fun. It’s also a bit Burroughs-ish, full of vague but disturbing and evocative turns of phrase. Then "Diamond Dogs" Terrific vocals, Bowie is in transition here, his vocals seem more grounded than ALADDIN SANE, but still cocky as hell. It’s the type of cockiness that would only a couple of albums later develop into full on megalomania with "Station to Station" (but in a really, really good way). He sings with authority and a bit of mocking distance, but not quite the disdainful tones of SANE tracks like "Cracked Actor" (which were the prefect tones for that song). The guitar, the sax and the cowbell heavy rhythm is dead on. Along with the backing vocals, it immediately brings to mind a grand space, a big sound, and a lot of rotting corruption. There are just as many dated sounds on DIAMOND DOGS as ALADDIN SANE, but I think the variance in approach and production makes up for this. The sounds come off as something closer to Frank Zappa’s earlier work, only with much better written songs. "Sweet Thing", "Candidate" and "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" is virtually a one song 9 minute epic. They are epic in a curios way that few musicians out side of Bowie, Nick Cave and maybe the velvet Underground are good at. They build up the tension throughout the songs, rolling the melody back and forth and developing it as it goes along without ever letting up on that tension. Few artist can makes track(s) past the 6 minute mark that don’t feel slack and out of steam. "Rebel Rebel" is the 5th track. One of the greatest rock songs ever written, from guitar, to vocals, to melody. Not much more to say about this, I’ll go into the alternate versions below. It’s probably the most straightforward song on the album. "Rock & Roll With Me" is one of the lamest titles for a good song since Sam Cooke’s "Twistin' The Night Away". It’s the bombastic song you’d expect and probably the weakest track on the album. The chorus is just too easy, it doesn’t quite fit. If your not paying attention, it’s not so bad that you’d get up and change the track. But if you are actively listening to it, you may end up skipping this one. It’s odd to say about a song on post apocalyptic concept album , but this one seems like it was written as a Novelty song. As if Bowie had written it for Mott The Hoople and then decided to keep it. "We Are Dead" has a late night piano player in a club kind of feel. Or I guess keyboard player kind of feel. But then the bridge kicks in, and we’re "Defecating Ecstasy" all over the place. It’s a slow burning song that quietly builds up as it goes along. Bowie’s lyrics betray the simplicity of the song and are starting to approach the Burrough’s writing style he would later jump head first into. "1984" is Super Disco!!!! If someone wrote a low budget disco movie starring Jeff Goldblum it’d probably have this as it’s theme. Oh wait, never mind. The funniest thing about how dated this song sound is that it predates most of the songs that it sounds like. DIAMOND DOGS was released in 1974 just when Disco was really taking hold in clubs but hadn’t yet found it’s name. Again Bowie was ahead of everyone else. The song itself isn’t too bad either, and the chorus is rather fun to sing along with, but yeah, very disco. "Big Brother". This one really sounds like a stage musical song, but of course darker and more rock-ish. Big chorus, it sings to the cheap seats. It’s a bit of an ironic one, everyone turning to big brother for help. It segues into "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family". Bowie gets points just for that title. It’s basically some more stage musical type singing of the final part of "Big Brother" but full of strange sounds and weird producing flourishes. At the end it breaks down, as if the record is skipping. The "Bru" sound of "brother" repeating and rolling away into the distance. It’s a strange way, but a perfect way to end this album. The music is almost happy and uplifting in a stage musical kind of way, but we’re singing the praise of Big Brother. Bowie has presented a broken future full of scavengers and death. In the end Humanity is calling on Big Brother to save us, but of course that’s only the beginning of the trouble... Though the extras are somewhat sparse, they are still make the 30th anniversary edition worth buying. "Dodo" and "Growin’ Up" are good song, but not up to the quality of the album tracks. If you are wondering where is the "Holy, Holy" B-side to "Diamond Dogs", it’s on the ZIGGY STARDUST 30th anniversary edition, since it was recorded during those sessions but not released until the "Diamond Dogs" single (As far as I know). The alternate versions of "Candidate" are probably better than the album version and well worth listening too. The album version only trumps these in context of the 9 minute suite or whatever you want to call it on the album. The best extras are the two alternate versions of "Rebel Rebel". The U.S. single version starts off with Bowie’s "hot Tramp" line, then the music kicks in. There is also a strangely altered backing vocal track that wooshes past the listeners ears as the song progresses. It’s interesting, but the song looses all it’s punch from this approach. It’s a good example of how production can change a song. The original kicks in with the guitar right away. The main lick is "Rebel Rebel"’s strongest point and one of the best of any Bowie song. Considering that Bowie has worked with some of the finest and most creative guitarist of all time, it’s a bit fitting that Bowie himself came up with one of the greatest rock and roll guitar licks of all time. The U.S. single version also pushed the rhythm way forward during the chorus, and sort of Disco-fies the whole thing. The original’s rhythm is sparser, as is the whole sound. In general the original is much more fun, but this version is still an interesting listen. Then there is the 2003 version of "Rebel Rebel" developed for Bowie’s Reality tour**, or maybe in the rehearsals leading up to it?). Earl Slick teases with a muted guitar thrum that evokes the famous guitar lick if you know what your listening too. Bowie sings over the guitar in one of his more recent futuristic crooner type of voice. When he gets to the chorus, we are finally hit with the famous guitar line, but Bowie teases us again by just singing "You're... You're..." with the echoing of the word instead of the full line, then the chorus really kicks in and the song doesn’t let up form there until the very end where it unravels in the reverse of the way it opened. It’s a terrific re-working of the song that is incredibly enjoyable to listen to and rivals the original. Of course, it wouldn’t have the impact it does if you hadn’t heard the original first. It’s also a dramatic and crowd pleasing way for Bowie to kick off a concert.
If you’re a Bowie fan, certainly pick up both of these 30th Anniversary editions. But first get the ZIGGY STARDUST 30th anniversary edition. ALADDIN SANE is a collection of great Glam songs, but not a great album. It's worth it if your a casual to hardcore Bowie fan. DIAMOND DOGS is a great album, but taken piece by piece the songs that aren’t singles are not as strong as the songs on SANE. Worth it for sure, but only a few tracks will go up on your ipod. Best listened to as a full album. -- *Not the first or last time Bowie would do a sci-fi concept album. ZIGGY STARDUST is of course about an alien coming down and becoming a Rock messiah/martyr. But I’ve always found the theme a little bit silly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the finest, if not one of the best albums ever made, but it’s strength is that it’s not constricted by it’s theme. It’s there if you want, or able to be overlooked if you so choose. It’s a bit, I dunno hippy-ish, though it pierces all that with "Rock and Roll" suicide. DIAMOND DOGS, if you’ll pardon me, has teeth. OUTSIDE was his latest foray into concept album (though HEATHEN and REALITY both have track listings that give you an emotional journey). OUTSIDE fails because it’s dependent on a lot of outside material. It’s a bit too vague on record. But it’s probably suffering form only being the first chapter in a project Bowie and Brian Eno abandoned. (when the hell are we going to hear any more of the nearly 40 hours of material Eno and Bowie created?). I love OUTSIDE, but it’s flawed. **The 2003 version of "Rebel Rebel" is also available on the two disc special edition of the REALITY CD. ***The David Bowie REALITY DVD kicks off with the re-worked "Rebel Rebel". The DVD is also one of the best concert DVD’s around, featuring one of the finest bands Bowie has ever put together, including Earl Slick, Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey. The track listing is a healthy selection of Bowie’s past hits and new material. All of it performed with vigor and fun, Bowie is in top form.
(c)-Steven Mangold
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And these are just to prove that Bowie would look cooler later:
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Little Known Fact: Bowie Founded Wolfmother |
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Could the mid-to-late 80's have been any worse for these two men?
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The Last thing you see before you die. |
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